Mastering Crystal Reports 9

Overview

Crystal Decisions’ Report Application Server (RAS) is an enterprise-level reporting product that can be used to distribute Crystal Reports within an organization using a web server for report distribution, web browsers for report consumption, and programmatic interfaces for report creation. As mentioned in Chapter 23, “Crystal Enterprise,” enterprise reporting involves taking the reports created with Crystal Reports and sharing them throughout an organization by using a centralized reporting system—namely, Crystal Enterprise.

While Crystal Enterprise is the high-end, full-featured system for company-wide report distribution and management, the Report Application Server is the entry-level version of Crystal Enterprise that is designed for developers who want to integrate Crystal Reports into custom report- distribution applications, and it serves as a stepping-stone to Crystal Enterprise, as you can later upgrade it once your distribution needs grow.

Featured in this chapter:

• Understanding the Report Application Server

• Installing the Report Application Server

• Investigating the Report Application Server’s capabilities and limitations

• Launching and using ePortfolio Lite

• Programming the Report Application Server

• Understanding the upgrade path to Crystal Enterprise